As Linux continues to be a key component in safety-related applications, Enabling Linux in Safety Applications (ELISA) is an open source project that aims to create a shared set of tools and processes to help companies build and certify Linux-based safetycritical applications and systems. Launched in February 2019, ELISA works with Linux kernel and safety communities to agree on what users should consider when using Linux in safety-critical systems.
In 2023, ELISA increased the technical resources created for the Linux community, including a Seminar Series of no-cost, on-demand videos that provide overviews of a special focus and project workshops for community members who are interested in advancing the milestones and goals of the project. The ELISA Seminar series hosted sessions that many organizations hosted, including Red Hat about an open source tool, tentatively named Basil, for tracing requirements, code, and tests; AMD about Xen safety certification; the Linux Foundation with AlektoMetis about automating adherence to safety profiles after fixing vulnerabilities; and the Boeing Company about DO-178C Level D certified Linux and NASA.
Two in-person workshops in Berlin and Munich brought together industry thought leaders and open source community members to discuss all safety-related issues, challenges, and next steps for the project. The project has several dedicated Working Groups (WGs) that provide resources for system integrators to apply and use to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze their systems:
Aerospace WG is busy surveying aerospace’s state of the art on using Linux and the associated certification approach and equivalent Design Assurance Level and identifying the challenges to adopting Linux in aerospace and candidate use cases using Linux.
Architecture WG is adopting the ks-nav tool set to implement and expand the STPA approach within the kernel.
Linux Features WG analyzed the potential and challenges of real-time safety-critical systems and presented their work at the Embedded Open Source Summit.
Medical Devices WG set out to discover the Linux kernel subsystems that OpenAPS used, shared key findings, and upstreamed the workload tracing guide.
Systems WG shared the work on creating a reproducible example system consisting of Linux, Xen, and Zephyr on real hardware at the Linux Plumbers Conference.
To kick off the new year, ELISA Working Group leads will be giving an annual update next week. The updates will include the following topics:
A recap of milestones in 2023
Current focus and activities
What’s coming up in 2024 and areas and opportunities for collaboration
Onboarding resources and how to get involved
This is a great opportunity to get up to speed with what each of the Working Group is working on and how you can participate and contribute this year. For more details and to register to attend please click here: https://elisa.tech/event/working-group-annual-updates/.
Last week, developers from around the world traveled to Richmond, Virginia for the annual Linux Plumbers Conference. Hosted at the Omni Richmond Hotel on November 13-15, the event was mostly in-person with a live-streaming element for those who couldn’t make it.
Philipp Ahmann, Product Manager for Embedded Open Source at Robert Bosch GmbH and Chair of the ELISA Project Technical Steering Committee (TSC), was at the event and gave presentation titled, “Putting Linux into Context – Towards a Reproducible Example System with Linux, Zephyr & Xen.” You can find his presentation video and PPT below:
Demos on embedded systems using Linux are plentiful, but when it comes to reproducing them, things get complicated. Additionally, on decent embedded systems Linux is only one part of the system and interacts with real-time operating systems and virtualization solutions. This makes reproduction even harder.
Within the Linux Foundation’s ELISA project, we started to create a reproducible example system consisting of Linux, Xen, and Zephyr on real hardware. This is the next step after we achieved a reproducible system with a pure Linux qemu image.
The idea is to have documentation, a continuous integration including testing, which can be picked up by developers to derive and add their own software pieces. In this way they should be able to concentrate on their use case rather than spending effort in creating such a system (unless they explicitly want this). We also show how to build everything from scratch. The assumption is that only in this way it is possible to get a system understanding to replace elements towards their specific use cases.
We had challenges finding good hardware, tools, freely available GPU drivers and more and we are still not at the end. A good system SBOM is also creating additional challenges, although leveraging the Yocto build system has provided some advantages here.
While we are setting up the first hardware with documentation from source to build to deployment and testing on embedded hardware, we aim to have at least two sets of all major system elements like Linux flavor, a choice of virtualization technique, real-time OS and hardware. Only when software elements and hardware can be exchanged, we identify clear interfaces and make a system reproducible and adoptable.
Open Questions are:
What will be a good next hardware to extend this PoC scope?
Where do open source, security, safety, and compliance come best together?
Which alternative real-time operating systems and virtualization should be incorporated?
SAN FRANCISCO – November 30, 2022 – Today, the ELISA (Enabling Linux in Safety Applications) Project announced that Robert Bosch GmbH and XPENG Motors have joined the project, marking its commitment to Linux and its effective use in safety-critical applications in connected cars. Hosted by the Linux Foundation, ELISA is an open source initiative that aims to create a shared set of tools and processes to help companies build and certify Linux-based safety-critical applications and systems.
Bosch is one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers. Bosch solutions combine automotive software know-how across all domains with expertise in electrical/electronic architecture of large integrated systems, complex real-time software, IoT, and automotive hardware. Their middleware offers functional safety, real-time behavior, and reliability under automotive requirements, combined with cyber-security. The Bosch experience and formal membership in ELISA fits well within the project goals and mission.
“Increasing product complexity and driving requirements in various areas of the software defined vehicle towards mixed-critical workloads requires thinking and going new ways to widen traditional approaches of systems engineering. Due to Bosch’s existing expertise in Linux and functional safety, the formal membership of Bosch within the ELISA project is a logical and consequent step,” said Philipp Ahmann, Business Development Manager – Embedded Open Source, Cross-Domain Computing Solutions at Robert Bosch GmbH. “The enthusiastic collaboration between functional safety experts combined with the recent excellent contributions from Linux experts are adding the value and momentum needed to enable Linux in safety applications and to make ELISA a success story.”
Earlier this month, Philipp Ahmann was nominated and elected as the new Chair of the ELISA Project Technical Steering Committee (TSC). He has been involved in the ELISA Project since May 2019 as an ambassador and member of the Technical Steering Committee (TSC) who has written blogs and given presentations in various Linux Foundation conferences and industry shows.
Philipp Ahmann steps into this role after TSC Chair Shuah Khan, Linux Fellow and Kernel Maintainer at The Linux Foundation, who has helped build the technical governance of the project and advance its mission and goals for more than two years. She will continue to contribute to the ELISA by helping Philipp Ahmann in his TSC role and supporting the working group leads.
“Philipp has made vast contributions during his time with the ELISA Project,” said Shuah Khan. “Since the day he joined the community, he’s been actively involved and has led the Automotive Working Group to real-world use cases like tell tales. His leadership will play an important role in setting up priorities and in providing guidance to the project. We are very excited about this next step in our evolution as an open source project setting the standard for safety-critical applications.”
Linux is used in all major industries because it can enable faster time to market for new features and take advantage of the quality of the code development processes. Launched in February 2019, ELISA works with Linux kernel and safety communities to agree on what should be considered when Linux is used in safety-critical systems. The project has several dedicated working groups that focus on providing resources for system integrators to apply and use to analyze qualitatively and quantitatively on their systems.
ELISA is open to everyone. Anyone can develop and contribute code, get elected to the Technical Steering Committee, or help steer the project forward in any number of ways.
Developers who are elected to the Technical Steering Committee or who participate as project leaders will provide leadership regarding the technical direction.
XPENG Motors, a leading Chinese smart EV company with hubs in China, the United States, and Europe, was founded in 2014 with a belief that technology is bound to transform the future of mobility.
“We are a technology company at heart. By addressing the needs of our customers with our expertise, we can solve the complicated questions in unchartered territory,” said Yu Peng, Embedded Systems General Manager at XPENG Motors. “We recognize the crucial and diverse role mobility plays in people’s lives, and aspire to expand future mobility through intelligent revolution, from the road to the air.”
“We joined ELISA because we wanted to get more technology and experience in improving the functional safety and stability of Linux-based system software. Through communications and participation, we hope the ELISA Project helps us to make products safer and more reliable,” said Peng.
Other ELISA Project members include ADIT, AISIN AW CO., Arm, Automotive Grade Linux, Automotive Intelligence and Control of China, Banma, Boeing, BMW Car IT GmbH, Codethink, Elektrobit, Horizon Robotics, Huawei Technologies, Intel, Lotus Cars, Toyota, Kuka, Linuxtronix. Mentor, NVIDIA, SUSE, Suzuki, Wind River, OTH Regensburg, Toyota and ZTE.
ELISA Presentations
The ELISA Project will be represented at Open Source Summit Japan, hosted on December 5-6 in Yokohama, Japan, and virtually. Kate Stewart, Vice President of Dependable Embedded Systems at The Linux Foundation, will give a keynote address titled “Japan’s Critical Infrastructure – Open Source Evolution,” on Tuesday, December 6 that will feature ELISA and a few other open source projects. On Wednesday, December 7, there will be an ELISA Mini-Summit that will offer a deep dive into the mission of the project and activities of the various working groups. There is a $10 fee when adding the ELISA Summit to the Open Source Summit Japan registration. Learn more about the conference or register here.
Other presentations this year include:
ELISA Summit – Hosted virtually on September 7-8, this event included speakers from Aptiv Services Deutschland GmbH, Boeing, CodeThink, The Linux Foundation, Mobileye, Red Hat and Robert Bosch GmbH. Watch the videos here.
Open Source Summit Europe – Hosted in-person in Dublin on September 13-16, ELISA had two dedicated presentations about enabling safety in safety-critical applications and safety and open source software. Watch the videos here.
Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation and its projects are supported by more than 3,000 members. The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, Hyperledger, RISC-V, PyTorch, and more. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.
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An estimated 185 people registered for the ELISA Summit, which took place virtually on September 7-8 to gather Linux community members and attendees from around the world. The event, which featured 15 sessions and 20 speakers, was open to anyone involved or interested in defining, using, or learning about common elements, processes, and tools that can be incorporated into Linux-based, safety-critical systems amenable to safety certification. Members of the ELISA Project community, presented best practices and overviews on emerging trend and hot topics to using open source software in safety-critical applications and detailed working group updates.
We’ll be featuring event videos in blogs each week. Today, we focus on one of the most popular sessions presented by Kate Stewart, VP of Dependable Embedded Systems at the Linux Foundation, and Shuah Khan, Kernel Maintainer and Fellow at the Linux Foundation. They kicked off the Summit with a session titled, “Welcome & Strategy,” where they gave an overview of ELISA Project and its Technical Strategy. This video is an introductory session for new comers and ELISA members that aren’t regular participants in the Working Groups.
Watch the video below or check out the presentation materials here.
For more details about the ELISA Project, visit the main website here. To learn more about any of the working groups or to join the community, click here.
This year, Open Source Summit North America was held as an umbrella conference, composed of a collection of 14 events covering the most important technologies, topics, and issues affecting open source today in June. There were a total of 2,771 attendees with 1,286 of those attending in person in Austin, from 1,041 organizations across 68 countries around the globe. The event attracted a diversified mix of open source community members from across the ecosystem. 54% of attendees were in technical positions, and developers comprised more than a quarter of attendees. You can read the post-event report here. You can also view all of the event playlists on the Linux Foundation Youtube Channel.
The ELISA Project was featured in several sessions and represented by ambassadors and community members at the conference. If you missed these presentations, you can watch the videos below:
Enabling Linux in Safety Applications (panel discussion) – Gabriele Paoloni, Red Hat (ELISA board chair) Kate Stewart, Linux Foundation (ELISA Executive Director) Paul Albertella, CodeThink (Open Source Engineering Process) Elana Copperman, Intel (Linux Features) Philipp Ahmann, Bosch GmbH (Automotive) Milan Lakhani, Codethink (Medical Devices)
Meeting business and safety objectives while building safety critical applications is a huge challenge for any industry, particularly those who have not had previous experience with open source and Linux. ELISA’s charter is to help industries navigate technical and non-technical challenges in order to bring the benefits of open source to safety applications and help organizations provide the rigor needed for certification. This panel features ELISA working group leads who will share their vision of making Linux a prominent player for FuSa applications in several industries. Join us to learn more about the project and how you can contribute to the community’s overall success.
Linux is used for many embedded device classes today. However, it is increasingly desirable to connect these devices with each other and with the cloud. Embedded container technology can be used to make this easier by merging server/cloud and embedded technologies. However, it also leads to more challenges e.g. in respect to security, safety, traceability, and SBOMs. Using Linux across multiple device classes and product lines, and adding cloud technology, causes the complexity and efforts to explode.
In this talk, we describe how Bosch, and others, use embedded containers and “reference systems” to avoid redundant work and get a large number of embedded projects under control.
A reference system is an adjustable compilation of tools along with a pre-configured bundle of packages for a common use case and defined set of devices. This reuse significantly reduces development and maintenance costs, and speeds up the time to market. In this way, reference systems can form the base for your product lines.
Bosch uses the in-house Debian-based embedded distribution “Apertis” as the basis for several reference systems, e.g. for automotive infotainment systems. In doing so we push as many efforts as possible from individual projects into Apertis, as the meta-layer. Thereby, the users can focus more on the actual functionality and applications. e.g. one issue that we have addressed in the context of software management is the handling of GPLv3 in embedded devices. Another topic has been mainline support for kernel drivers.
BOF: SBOMs for Embedded Systems: What’s Working? What’s Not? – Kate Stewart
With the recent focus on improving Cybersecurity in IoT & Embedded, the expectation that a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) can be produced, is becoming the norm. Having a clear understanding of the software running on an embedded system, especially in safety critical applications, like medical devices, energy infrastructure, etc. has become essential. Regulatory authorities have recognized this and are starting to expect it as a condition for engagement. This BOF will provide an overview of the emerging regulatory landscape, as well as examples of how SBOMs are already being generated today for embedded systems by open source projects such as Zephyr, Yocto and others, followed by a discussion of the gaps folks are seeing in practice, and ways we might tackle them.
Static Partitioning with Xen, LinuxRT, and Zephyr: A Concrete End-to-end Example – Stefano Stabellini, AMD
Static partitioning enables multiple domains to run alongside each other with no interference. They could be running Linux, an RTOS, or another OS, and all of them have direct access to different portions of the SoC. In the last five years, the Xen community introduced several new features to make Xen-based static partitioning possible. Dom0less to start multiple static domains in parallel at boot, and Cache Coloring to minimize cache interference effects are among them. Static inter-domain communications mechanisms were introduced this year, while “ImageBuilder” has been making system-wide configurations easier. An easy-to-use complete solution is within our grasp. This talk will show the progress made on Xen static partitioning. The audience will learn to configure a realistic reference design with multiple partitions: a LinuxRT partition, a Zephyr partition, and a larger Linux partition. The presentation will show how to set up communication channels and direct hardware access for the domains. It will explain how to measure interrupt latency and use cache coloring to zero cache interference effects. The talk will include a live demo of the reference design.
RTLA: Real-time Linux Analysis Toolset – Daniel Bristot De Oliveira, Red Hat
Currently, Real-time Linux is evaluated using a black-box approach. While the black-box method provides an overview of the system, it fails to provide a root cause analysis for unexpected values. Developers have to use kernel trace features to debug these cases, requiring extensive knowledge about the system and fastidious tracing setup and breakdown. Such analysis will be even more impactful after the PREEMPT_RT merge. To support these cases, since version 5.17, the Linux kernel includes a new tool named rtla, which stands for Real-time Linux Analysis. The rtla is a meta-tool that consists of a set of commands that aims to analyze the real-time properties of Linux. Instead of testing Linux as a black box, rtla leverages kernel tracing capabilities to provide precise information about latencies and root causes of unexpected results. In this talk, Daniel will present two tools provided by rtla. The timerlat tool to measure IRQ and thread latency for interrupt-driven applications and the osnoise tool to evaluate the ability of Linux to isolate workload from the interferences from the rest of the system. The presentation includes examples of how to use the tool to find the root cause analysis and collect extra tracing information directly from the tool.
SAN FRANCISCO – August 11, 2022 – Today, the ELISA (Enabling Linux in Safety Applications) Project announced that Boeing has joined as a Premier member, marking its commitment to Linux and its effective use in safety critical applications. Hosted by the Linux Foundation, ELISA is an open source initiative that aims to create a shared set of tools and processes to help companies build and certify Linux-based safety-critical applications and systems.
“Boeing is modernizing software to accelerate innovation and provide greater value to our customers,” said Jinnah Hosein, Vice President of Software Engineering at the Boeing Company. “The demand for safe and secure software requires rapid iteration, integration, and validation. Standardizing around open source products enhanced for safety-critical avionics applications is a key aspect of our adoption of state-of-the-art techniques and processes.”
As a leading global aerospace company, Boeing develops, manufactures and services commercial airplanes, defense products, and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. It’s already using Linux in current avionics systems, including commercial systems certified to DO-178C Design Assurance Level D. Joining the ELISA Project will help pursue the vision for generational change in software development at Boeing. Additionally, Boeing will work with the ELISA Technical Steering Committee (TSC) to launch a new Aerospace Working Group that will work in parallel with the other working groups like automotive, medical devices, and others.
“We want to improve industry-standard tools related to certification and assurance artifacts in order to standardize improvements and contribute new features back to the open source community. We hope to leverage open source tooling (such as a cloud-based DevSecOps software factory) and industry standards to build world class software and provide an environment that attracts industry leaders to drive cultural change at Boeing,” said Hosein.
Linux is used in all major industries because it can enable faster time to market for new features and take advantage of the quality of the code development processes. Launched in February 2019, ELISA works with Linux kernel and safety communities to agree on what should be considered when Linux is used in safety-critical systems. The project has several dedicated working groups that focus on providing resources for system integrators to apply and use to analyze qualitatively and quantitatively on their systems.
“Linux has a history of being a reliable and stable development platform that advances innovation for a wide range of industries,” said Kate Stewart, Vice President of Dependable Embedded Systems at the Linux Foundation. “With Boeing’s membership, ELISA will start a new focus in the aerospace industry, which is already using Linux in selected applications. We look forward to working with Boeing and others in the aerospace sector, to build up best practices for working with Linux in this space.”
Other ELISA Project members include ADIT, AISIN AW CO., Arm, Automotive Grade Linux, Automotive Intelligence and Control of China, Banma, BMW Car IT GmbH, Codethink, Elektrobit, Horizon Robotics, Huawei Technologies, Intel, Lotus Cars, Toyota, Kuka, Linuxtronix. Mentor, NVIDIA, SUSE, Suzuki, Wind River, OTH Regensburg, Toyota and ZTE.
ELISA Summit – Hosted virtually for participants around the world on September 7-8, this event will feature overview of the project, the mission and goals for each working group and an opportunity for attendees to ask questions and network with ELISA leaders. The schedule is now live and includes speakers from Aptiv Services Deutschland GmbH, Boeing, CodeThink, The Linux Foundation, Mobileye, Red Hat and Robert Bosch GmbH. Check out the schedule here: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/elisa-summit/program/schedule/. Registration is free and open to the public. https://elisa.tech/event/elisa-summit-virtual/
ELISA Forum – Hosted in-person in Dublin, Ireland, on September 12, this event takes place the day before Open Source Summit Europe begins. It will feature an update on all of the working groups, an interactive System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) use case and an Ask Me Anything session. Pre-registration is required. To register for ELISA Forum, add it to your Open Source Summit Europe registration.
Open Source Summit Europe – Hosted in-person in Dublin and virtually on September 13-16, ELISA will have two dedicated presentations about enabling safety in safety-critical applications and safety and open source software. Learn more.
Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation and its projects are supported by more than 2,950 members. The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, Hyperledger, RISC-V, and more. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.
The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
The Linux Foundation has had a robust mentorship program for years that invests in new talent and diversity that helps the open source community – no matter what the focus or project – thrive as a whole. Since its formal launch in 2019, the LFX Mentorship has graduated more than 190 mentees and has hosted almost 100 mentorship programs.
This Spring, the ELISA Project is hosting two mentorships that will help developers gain real-world knowledge in a hands-on learning experience with Linux and open source. It also provides a more defined path for ELISA to connect with the next generation to inject more talent into their developer base.
The Spring Mentorship session, which kicked off in March, paired mentees with leaders from Codethink, the Linux Foundation and Mobileye. The ELISA Project is excited to welcome Irenge Jules Bashizi, Shefali Sharma and Wenhui Zhang as the newest mentees in the ELISA community.Please see below for more details about their mentorships and mentors. As they settle into their new roles, we hope to feature their mentorship journey in upcoming blog posts.
To make eBPF programs “safe”, the Linux kernel validates all eBPF code before loading. However, the current validator has many known limitations, leading to rejection of working programs.
Focus in this mentorship will be:
In-depth analysis and review of the eBPF validator, and its use to validate eBPF programs.
Code enhancements to the validator to improve usability.
Identify use cases for kernel profiling in safety critical applications.
Elana Copperman
Mentor: Elana Copperman, Chair of the Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems Working Group and System Safety Architect at Mobileye (part of Intel)
Elana provides support for designing safety features in Mobileye products, including system boot; drivers; and Linux infrastructure. Before working at Mobileye, she worked as a Security Architect for Cisco-Il (formerly NDS) and more recently as a security consultant for major European automotive concerns on behalf of various Israeli startups. Research interests focus on software engineering methodologies and security engineering.
In particular, focusing on expanding open source and Linux-based tools to support safety critical and life saving product development.
Irenge Jules Bashizi
Mentee: Irenge Jules Bashizi
Jules is a Computer science student at University of Manchester. He is a certified Linux System administrator. Jules is interested in improving his skills in Kernel engineering by contributing to the Linux Kernel community by submitting patches. This internship offers him a unique opportunity tailored to improve and contribute. As a hobby, Jules enjoys jogging..
OpenAPS is an open source Artificial Pancreas System designed to automatically adjust an insulin pump’s insulin delivery to keep Blood Glucose in a safe range at all times. It is an open and transparent effort to make safe and effective basic Automatic Pancreas System technology widely available to anyone with compatible medical devices who is willing to build their own system.
What happens when an OpenAPS workload runs on Linux? What are the subsystems and modules that are in active use when OpenAPS is running? What are the interactions between OpenAPS and the kernel when a user checks how much insulin is left in the insulin pump?
The ELISA Medical Devices Working Group set out to answer these questions. Understanding the kernel footprint necessary to run a workload helps us focus on the subsystem and modules that make up the footprint for safety.
The mentee will:
Use Linux kernel tracing and strace tool to discover Linux kernel subsystems used by OpenAPS.
Find Linux system calls supported on various architectures.
Write a blog/whitepaper on the findings which will aid ELISA Medical Devices WG to focus on the subsystem and modules that make up the footprint for safety.
Shefali Sharma has started working on the project to advance the work Shuah and Milna have shared in their recent blog here.
Mentor: Milan Lakhani, Co-Chair of the Medical Devices Working Group and Systems and Software Engineer at Codethink
In open source, Milan’s contributions to Linux kernel are aimed at achieving ELISA project goals. Other than that, he has previously worked in the Trustable and community – mainly STPA analysis on design and writing requirements and tests and also some patches to help with making a webapp and porting.
There are a lot of aspects and opportunities to really learn through experience and take responsibility to make an impact on a highly approved, tested and growing Closed Loop Open-Source insulin delivery system that is really helping to reduce issues of people with type 1 diabetes. There should also be some variety in the tasks and the approach that the mentee can do. Milan is excited to share his skills and knowledge with STPA (our method of safety analysis for the system), the OpenAPS system and codebase (OpenAPS is the medical device itself) and Linux kernel.
Shuah Khan
Mentor: Shuah Khan, ELISA Project TSC Chair and Linux Foundation Fellow
Shuah is an experienced Linux Kernel developer, maintainer, and contributor. She has extensive experience in open source development, actively working across Linux Kernel sub-systems.
She currently maintains the Kernel Selftest, USB over IP, and cpupower tools. She is an active contributor to the Linux media sub-system.
Shuah has a passion for mentoring and educating the next generation. She loves mentoring and training engineers new to open source and helping them become committers and reviewers.
Shefali Sharma
Mentee: Shefali Sharma
Shefali is a third year Computer Science Engineering student from Meerut Institute of Engineering and Technology, Meerut, India. She likes to explore new technical domains. She is very excited to work on the OpenAPS project as it will give her an opportunity to use her technical skills for the welfare of others and to get involved in the Linux kernel community. Apart from this she is also interested in DevOps and Machine Learning.
Register for the ELISA Spring Workshop on April 5-7 to Learn More
SAN FRANCISCO – March 23, 2022 – Today, the ELISA (Enabling Linux in Safety Applications) Project, an open source initiative that aims to create a shared set of tools and processes to help companies build and certify Linux-based safety-critical applications and systems, announced a stronger ecosystem focused on automotive use cases with the addition of the Automotive Intelligence and Control of China (AICC), LOTUS Cars and ZTE.
“The ELISA ecosystem continues to grow globally with strong support from automakers across Asia and Europe,” Kate Stewart, Vice President of Dependable Embedded Systems at The Linux Foundation. “By leveraging the expertise of current and new ELISA Project members, we are defining the best practices for use of Linux in the automobiles of the future. “
Linux is used in all major industries because it can enable faster time to market for new features and take advantage of the quality of the code development processes. Launched in February 2019 by the Linux Foundation, ELISA works with Linux kernel and safety communities to agree on what should be considered when Linux is to be used in safety-critical systems. The project has several dedicated working groups that focus on providing resources for System integrators to apply and use to analyze qualitatively and quantitatively on their systems.
The Automotive Working Group discusses the conditions and prerequisites the automotive sector needs to integrate Linux into a safety critical system. The group, which includes collaboration from ADIT, Arm, Codethink, Evidence (a part of Huawei), Red Hat and Toyota, focuses on actual use cases from the Automotive domain to derive the technical requirements to the kernel as a basis for investigation within the Architecture Workgroup and to serve as a blueprint for actual projects in the future. There is also close collaboration with Automotive Grade Linux, which results in a meta-ELISA layer enhancing the instrument cluster demo for safety relevant parts. As leaders in the automotive industry, AICC, LOTUS Cars and ZTE will most likely join the Automotive Working Group.
New Global Automotive Expertise
As the industry’s leading ICV computing infrastructure company, AICC is committed to providing OEMs with intelligent vehicle computing platforms and digital bases for empowering them the differentiated application development ability. In November 2021, AICC released iVBB2.0 series products, which takes ICVOS as the core product, then develops ICVHW, ICVSEC, ICVEC, and other product units. Currently, iVBB2.0 has been delivered to many OEMs and achieved collaboration on cross-platform development, co-built SDV, multi-chip distributed deployment, data security policy deployment and car cloud collaborative computing.
“Becoming a member of the ELISA Project, is in line with the high real-time, high-security, and high-reliability commitment that AICC has always made,” said Dr. Jin Shang, CEO & CTO of AICC. “This will provide a guarantee for the mass production development of AICC’s ICV computing infrastructure platform from security and quality perspectives. Based on the elements, tools, and processes shared by ELISA, AICC will build safety-critical applications and systems relating to Linux requirements, leading to widely used and internationally influential products.”
LOTUS Cars, which was honored as “Manufacturer of the Year” at the News UK Motor Awards in 2021, is focused on the safety of intelligent driving. It is a world-famous manufacturer of sports cars and racing cars noted for their light weight and fine handling characteristics.
“Functional safety is critical to intelligent driving,” said Jie Deng, LOTUS Cars In-Vehicle Operating System Lead. “LOTUS focuses on ‘track-level intelligent drive‘ and is committed to ensuring that drivers stay away from risks through active redundancy of software and hardware. We are very excited to join the ELISA Project and work with industry experts to productize Linux-based safety-critical systems for more drivers to experience intelligent driving in a highly safe and fun way.”
ZTE Corporation is a global leader in telecommunications and information technology. Founded in 1985, the company has been committed to providing innovative technologies and integrated solutions for operators, government and consumers from over 160 countries. ZTE has established 11 state-of-the-art global R&D centers and 5 intelligent manufacturing bases.
Relying on key technologies and core capabilities in the communications field, ZTE Automotive Electronics is committed to becoming a digital vehicle infrastructure capability provider and an independent high-performance partner in China, facilitating the intelligent and networked development in the automobile field. ZTE has been dedicated to GoldenOS R&D for more than 20 years. On this basis, ZTE proposes the integrated automotive operating system solution of high-performance embedded Linux and high security microkernel OS/Hypervisor, covering all scenarios of intelligent vehicle control, intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit and intelligent network connectivities.
These new members join ADIT, AISIN AW CO., Arm, Automotive Grade Linux, Banma, BMW Car IT GmbH, Codethink, Elektrobit, Horizon Robotics, Huawei Technologies, Intel, Toyota, Kuka, Linuxtronix. Mentor, NVIDIA, SUSE, Suzuki, Wind River, OTH Regensburg and Toyota.
The Spring Workshop
ELISA Project members will come together for its quarterly Spring Workshop on April 5-7 to learn about the latest developments, working group updates, share best practices and collaborate to drive rapid innovation across the industry. Hosted online, this workshop is free and open to the public. Details and registration information can be found here.
Workshop highlights include:
A keynote by Robert Martin, Senior Principal Engineer at MITRE Corporation, about “Software Supply Chain Integrity Transparency & Trustworthiness and Related Community Efforts.” The presentation will discuss the capabilities emerging across industry and government to assess and address the challenges to providing trustworthy software supplies with assurance of integrity and transparency to their composition, source, and veracity – the building blocks of software supply chains we can gain justifiable confidence in at scale and speed.
A session by Christopher Temple, Lead Safety & Reliability Systems Architect at Arm Germany GmbH, and Paul Albertella, Consultant at Codethink, about “Mixed-Criticality Processing on Linux.” This talk will help create a common understanding of mixed-criticality processing on Linux and the related problems, collect and discuss alternatives for addressing the problems.
A discussion led by Philipp Ahmann, Business Development Manager at Robert Bosch GmbH, about a new Industrial IoT (IIoT) Working Group within ELISA. The open forum will allow the community to discuss framing lightweight SOUP safety standards, but focusing on those touch points which are not fully covered by other use case driven working groups.
Speakers include thought leaders from ADIT GmbH, Arm, Bosch GmbH, Bytedance, Codethink, Huawei, Mobileye, The Linux Foundation, MITRE Corporation and Red Hat. Check out the schedule and register to attend the workshop today.
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The ELISA Workshop series is focused on the exchange of ideas and feedback from the Linux kernel and Safety communities, as productive collaboration to make tangible progress toward achieving the mission and goals of the ELISA Project. The workshops also provide project and working group overviews for new community members who are interested in advancing topics relevant to functional safety and Linux applications.
It is free to attend ELISA Workshops but we require registration. Register here.
Missed the November Workshop?
Philipp Ahmann, ELISA Project Ambassador and Technical Steering Committee member, recapped the successful event and highlighted a few of the sessions. You can read the blog or watch the videos here.
If you have any questions about the event, please reach out to events@elisa.tech.
ELISA Ambassadors are technical leaders who are passionate about the mission of the ELISA Project, recognized for their expertise in functional safety and linux kernel development, and willing to help others to learn about the community and how to contribute.
Each month, we’ll put a spotlight on an ELISA Ambassador. Today, we’re excited to highlight Elana Copperman, PhD, ELISA ambassador, Chair of the Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems (LFSCS) Working Group and TSC voting member. Elana works as a System Safety Architect in Mobileye, an Intel company, designing features to support safety as well as security features in Mobileye vision products for the automotive domain.
Background Details:
As a System Safety Architect at Mobileye, Elana provides support for designing critical system features in Mobileye products, including system boot; drivers; and Linux infrastructure. Before working at Mobileye, she worked as a Security Architect for Cisco-Il (formerly NDS) and more recently as a security consultant for major European automotive concerns on behalf of various Israeli startups. Most recently, merging with safety constraints in the automotive domain, to deploy secure as well as safe systems. Her research interests focus on software engineering methodologies and security engineering.
Q&A
How long have you been active in open source?
I have been involved in “open source” before it was formalized as we know it today. During my time as an undergraduate student, online software source code was commonly shared as freeware. In fact, even early Unix versions were provided at no cost to academics, and collaborative efforts were supported to some degree.
My PhD research focused on Object-Oriented Programming, including some investigations on Java source code and features. Open source software development, Linux in particular, has evolved since then, including many new challenges and opportunities. For example, setting up and working with Apache Server over Linux OS in the early 1990’s.
Over the last 15 years, Linux has grown to what we know & love today, with its amazing powers. As a system architect, I have been designing systems that empower Linux in embedded systems, first in Set-Top Boxes (for digital broadcasting) and currently in Automotive.
Tell us about your favorite open source project and what problems did it aim to solve?
My favorite open source project focused on security code review with ST (chip vendor) engineers for the optee code, which had been released to Linaro. To see first-hand how open source aligns vendor, kernel and user requirements with features to resolve complex security challenges was mind-blowing.
How long have you been active in the ELISA Project?
What roles and/or working groups do you have or participate in?
I was the Chair of the Kernel Development Process Working Group, and am currently the new Linux Features for Safety-Critical Systems WG. I am learning from the safety experts on board, and my primary contribution is to represent the viewpoint of the application designers and developers who will build Linux-based safety critical systems.
Where do you see the ELISA Project in three years?
My dream for ELISA is to see a community of developers providing kernel modules which may be leveraged for use in safety critical systems. For example, a suite of memory protection mechanisms derived from well defined requirements that may be deployed to protect safety-critical data. Another example, which is in our planned agenda, are test suites for concurrency issues such as deadlock and race conditions, focusing on test plans derived from safety requirements.
What is the biggest strength of the ELISA community?
I think ELISA has matured since its early days and we are currently more structured in our analysis and goals. Our strength is in current efforts to progress and making real contributions to the Linux kernel community.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Never give up. Be flexible, adapt, adjust – but keep up the hard work.
What technology can you not live without? Why?
My home coffee machine. Drop in for a fresh cup and you will know why.
What part of the world do you live in? Why do you love where you live?
I live in Israel, a tiny multicultural nation at the junction of 3 continents (Europe, Asia, Africa). It has also become a major highway for birds – and a pilgrimage site for bird watchers. A wide variety of species can be viewed making their way south in the fall and back north in the spring. Thomas Krumenacker (German journalist and photographer) wrote a book on “Birds in the Holy Land”.
Now is a great time of year to take a trip to the Hula Valley Nature Reserve, to get a view of some of the estimated 500 million migrating birds passing over the Hula Valley and stopping by for a drink of water. This exemplifies the amazing diversity of the people and wildlife of our small fast-paced country.
What’s your favorite quote?
3 Fun facts:
My first computer was a PCJr, with 64 Kb of memory, and with virtually no hardware or software. I had to install all my own hardware add-ons and get it to work, including etching bit maps for the Hebrew alphabet in memory and getting it to work from right to left. After adding more and more components to the motherboard, one day it blew up. But I had a lot of fun with it until that happened.
As a grad student at NYU, we had loads of fun playing with early internet protocols and collaboration tools, including gopher and kermit; getting our hands dirty (“finger”) working with each other’s systems; and Mosaic (an early Web browser). The crazy things we did over the internet taught me a lot about potential security issues related to networking. This expertise was the foundation for my more recent work in security and safety engineering.
As chair of the Computer Department at the Jerusalem College, we aimed high but with a low budget. Trying to keep up to date with educational (i.e., no support or documentation) versions of closed source software was a real challenge. I became adept at finding contacts working with major software vendors who were willing to break down the walls, expose the source code and support my customization for our needs. In a sense, challenging proprietary software in open-source development mode …
To learn more about ELISA ambassadors, please click here.
